China says new EU anti-dumping methodology 'misleading'

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Thursday voiced opposition to the European Union's new anti-dumping methodology, saying it was imposing "misleading" standards for enterprises.

"Every country enjoys the right to choose its own development path, which should be respected by the international community," said MOC Spokesperson Gao Feng when commenting on the new EU anti-dumping methodology and its report accusing China of significant market distortion.

The EU has recently released new anti-dumping rules that remove the former distinction between "market and non-market economies" for calculating dumping. Instead, the rules require the proving of the existence of a "significant market distortion" between a product's sale price and its production cost.

It has also published a report on China, claiming that there were "significant distortions" within the economy.

"Practice has fully proven that China's socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics accords with China's reality and its economic development in the new era, and it has won positive evaluation from many other countries," Gao said.

"EU leaders have repeatedly expressed hopes that they want China-EU economic and trade relations to be sound and stable...which has so far maintained good momentum," he said, citing figures that bilateral trade between the two sides has climbed 12.7 percent in the Jan.-Nov period.

"China hopes the EU side would 'walk the talk' and guide its enterprises in a right way to truly protect China-EU trade and economic cooperation," Gao said. "China reserves its rights under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and will take necessary measures to protect its legitimate interests."